Saturday’s game was a painful one for Kevin Love, both literally and figuratively.
The freshman center crashed heavily to the court several times throughout the game, once while leaping to catch a pass and several times while going up for rebounds.
After the game, he said he had banged his knee painfully and had a stinger in his elbow.
Love’s play was also suffering. While he finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, he seemed distinctly out of the flow of the Bruins’ offense for much of the first half; after dunking home the first two points of the game, Love went nearly 16 minutes without taking another shot.
He also struggled defensively against the Ducks’ drive-and-kick offense, and shot an uncharacteristically poor 4-for-10 from the field and 7-of-12 from the free-throw line.
After the game, Love sounded subdued, and offered neither explanations nor excuses for his erratic performance, although he refused to blame it on the physical pounding he was taking.
“(There’s) no excuse for missing my free throws or going 4-for-10, but that’s just the way the ball bounces some days,” Love said.
When told by a reporter that he didn’t look like himself in the first half, Love quietly replied, “I wasn’t.”
Like he has most of the season, Love faced frequent double- and triple-teams against Oregon.
The Ducks even hounded Love when he had the ball beyond the arc.
“(They were) doubling me, making sure I didn’t get touches,” the freshman star said.
“Even when I was out on the 3-point line they tried to limit my touches there because I hit two 3s against them last time.
“They just did everything they could, double- and triple-teaming me, taking away everything they possibly could. … They shut me down a little bit.”
Late in the half, Love could be seen huddling with several of the assistant coaches. While Love said they weren’t working on any specific adjustments, his defense did improve in the second half.
“I had to be a lot more out on the perimeter today, and also I had to defend down low as well, so I just had to be versatile,” Love said.
“In the first half, I wasn’t doing that great of a job, but I looked at some of the stuff I was doing … and I got back in there and I did well.
“I just tried to get into a rhythm. I didn’t try to do too much.”
Love’s offensive play also improved markedly down the stretch, and he scored 11 of his points after halftime.
He seemed to have a higher energy level, making the kind of sudden jumps that occasionally lead to a painful landing.
“I thought the last eight minutes of the game (Love) played really, really well,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
“He was a key for us down the stretch. Obviously you want him to knock down his free throws a little better.
“But at the end of the day he gets a double-double ““ 15 and 11 ““ so you look at the bottom line.”